


A Home for All of Us

by MyKeyboardDidIt



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Angst, DJWifi, F/F, F/M, Fluff (eventually), Gabriel is the leader of a gang, Gen, Gunfights and Outlaw Stuff, Hurt/Comfort, Julerose - Freeform, M/M, Some Characters have already died, Western AU, doing my best to be historically accurate, marcnath, mostly juleka and rose probably, no powers au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:33:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26435725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyKeyboardDidIt/pseuds/MyKeyboardDidIt
Summary: Three years ago, Adrien took everyone he cared about and ran away from his father's gang of outlaws. Now, Adrien is getting sick of organized crime in the Wild West. Marinette is not taking this well, and their fighting is threatening to throw their group into disarray. Meanwhile, they need to keep stealing to survive.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	A Home for All of Us

**Author's Note:**

> This was only possible thanks to the amazing SagansJagger, who betaed this through several rewrites and revisions. Please go check out their works too!

“We don’t give up on our family, Adrien,” Marinette whispered in a sharp tone. The swashes of cloth that functioned as doors were both closed, but sound still traveled outside from the modest tent. What’s more, the five other tents were tightly packed around theirs in a semicircle. Only Rose, who was out hunting, was absent from the campsite. That meant there were about eight other people within earshot that did not need to hear this argument.

“I’m not giving up on anyone! I never said I was,” Adrien whisper-shouted back, exasperated. “I just want us to be able to settle down and not have to be running from the law and making enemies. We can’t run until we’re dead. I can’t…” He faltered. He hated even entertaining that thought. “I can’t lose you all, one by one.”

“This isn’t about you,” Marinette replied, pointing towards his chest. “This is about us. We... _they_ deserve to make the decision.” She crossed her arms and sat down on their bed with a huff, hiding her watering eyes. Adrien picked his hat up off of a small end table and placed it on his head. 

“I understand everyone’s opinion matters, but whose fault is it if we all end up dead?” He put his hand out to open the tent, making one last momentary eye contact with Marinette. Neither of them were willing to compromise. At that moment, they seemed the most bitter of rivals. 

Adrien took a deep breath and put on a smile as he exited the tent. He just needed to act like everything was fine, and no one would be the wiser. Except, he couldn’t. Everyone was outside, and their various conversations came to an abrupt end when he stepped out. 

_Okay, new plan: Deny._

“Everything alright in there, Adrien?” Luka asked, standing next to Nino and Alya. The way he asked made it clear that he knew that it wasn’t, and just wanted to know what was up. Adrien felt himself pale at the question, but did his best to keep his normal, hapless smile.

“Oh yeah! She’s just a little tired. I am too, honestly.” He put a hand behind his head, laughing just a little too much to sell it. His three friends looked at each other, but he pretended not to see. The sound of horse tracks gave Adrien just the excuse he needed to get out of this line of questioning. He walked with purpose to the entrance of their camp, a natural ramp made of dirt on the east side of the hill. Juleka was right behind him, holding her dress up as not to get it dirty while she was running.

“Hey, Rose! How did it go today?” He regarded the short-haired blonde, covered in blood and carrying several skinned animals on her horse’s back.

“Oh, just wonderful! I think I got enough to last us a few days. Chloe can always set a few in salt if we need to. She gestured to four rabbits she had, as well as a large deer.

“You rock, babe,” Juleka said, smiling with her head in her hands. “When are you gonna take _me_ out there?” She helped her girlfriend off the horse, planting a kiss on her cheek as soon as she could.

“As soon as you can shoot straight,” Rose replied, blushing at the kiss. Adrien laughed with a bit of awkwardness mixed in with his actual happiness for the couple. He helped get some of the meat from her horse to Chloe’s kitchen cart on the south side of camp. The cook had returned here shortly after Adrien and Marinette’s argument had ended, and was now standing there with her arms crossed in her typical impatient style.

“How long were you gonna keep me -” Her face immediately changed as she saw Adrien walking over alongside Rose and Juleka. Whatever they had been fighting about must have been bad, because Adrien was pretty obviously shaken by it. Chloe wilted by the time Adrien and the girls had reached her, and Adrien immediately expressed concern.

“Hey, Chloe. Everything alright?” Adrien once again did his best to oversell his smile, which ended up looking terribly forced. Rose looked confused, so Juleka cupped her hand around the girl’s ear to fill her in. 

“Ohhhh,” Rose said quietly in response to her girlfriend’s whispers. 

“I don’t know. Adrien, is everything alright?” Chloe looked like shattered glass, the sun framing her insecurities. Adrien was surprised at that, and didn’t answer immediately, causing Chloe to look down. 

“Okay,” she said, dragging her boot through the dirt in front of her. “Thanks for bringing meat, Rose.”

“Anytime!” she answered cheerfully. The two girlfriends led Rose’s horse back to a wooden bar which was the camp’s hitching site. Adrien felt very awkward yet again, and attempted to change the subject.

“I was actually just about to call the meeting. Are you coming?”

Chloe looked up at him, shaking her head yes. Her frown didn’t seem to match the affirmative.

Adrien set out a large wooden table between his and Marinette’s tent and Chloe’s kitchen, summoning everyone to sit at it. It was here that he called his weekly meeting every Sunday. They were a gang, a group of organized criminals. They did their best work as a team, having pulled off some truly incredible heists. Even so, each member of the group had different strengths. Some did rob in broad daylight, while others had sneakier ways of making money. This was how they had always survived. This was their family.

"Violet is a fairly small town, eighty people.” Adrien unfurled a map he had acquired of the region, pointing to where Violet was marked. It was only about 3 miles from their campsite. The region was far southwest of the established United States, a few thousand miles from the edge of Mexico. 

“There's money to be had in the bank and the general store if we want, but as always that should be our backup plan. I like to keep as many people unaware as possible of what we do. A large bank heist isn't what we want." People nodded at various points. He had a similar spiel every week.

He stood back from the table, gesturing towards their cook. She had managed to compose herself, but still was largely preoccupied with her own thoughts. 

"Chloe made a trip out for supplies and picked up on some leads. Chloe?"

The blond stood up from her spot at the table to present, her apron still tied to her waist. 

"I noticed that the general store was advertising some sort of soirée they're having at the saloon on Tuesday. Seems like a great time to meet some rich folk and get all...buddy buddy."

"What the hell is a soirée?" Nino piped up.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "A party. A dance. A ball. Though I guess I'm overselling it. Not particularly New York City down there."

"A...hootenanny?" Adrien offered. Chloe nodded disinterestedly, her hands on her hips. 

"What I am trying to say is that we can find the richest people to _steal from_ there!" Chloe cried before crossing her arms.

"Plus, a lot of places will be empty in town while all that's happenin'," Marinette said with a dirty smile. "My kinda town." Adrien looked less than thrilled with her assertion.

"Tomorrow then, we oughta go make first contact with the locals. I'm going, and I'm sure Mary will as well. Who else wants to come?" Adrien raised his own hand as he spoke.

Juleka raised her hand. "Hey, I could use a drink. If I can get some guy to buy it for me, all the better." 

"I suppose I won't come then," Rose said in response. "Wouldn't want to blow your cover," she added with a giggle.

"I'd like to come, Adrien. Our ammunition supply is looking low, and you know that always makes me nervous." Alya said, her eyes twinkling with an anxious seriousness. Adrien nodded at that. 

“Alright, y’all be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed by seven then. The four of us will leave right after breakfast, buy some ammo, make some friends, and hopefully figure out what our next move will be. Everyone else, lay low. There's been reports of Gabriel's men out here, and the last thing we need is to defend this place against a horde of idiots with guns." Adrien scanned the room, looking for someone to back him up. The faces of his friends looked concerned at the thought of having to fight against that gang again. Bad memories of his friends dying bubbled up into his mind.

"Alright, good talk, guys. Good night!" Alya said with a tongue-in-cheek perkiness, clapping her hand onto Adrien’s shoulder. She practically dragged Nino back to their little section of camp, already whispering to him as they left. The others went to their separate tents, eager for Chloe to prepare dinner.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************

Marinette laid in bed that night, with Adrien sat on the other side. She had lost track of how long he had been sitting there, but it had been a while.

"You need to sleep, babe," she said at last. His head shook, as if he had come out of a daze.

"Hm? Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Sorry. Big day tomorrow." Adrien slid under the blanket and turned to face away from her. Marinette sighed, flipping over.

Morning came to the smell of meat on the campfire as Chloe prepared breakfast. It wasn't long before she had a line of people to serve, all looking drowsy and mostly silent as the sun lazily rose.

"If only Daddy could see me now, serving food to all of you _zombies_." Chloe remarked with a laugh. "He'd disown me again," she added with a mix of humor and pain that was bitter to the ears. Soon everyone was eating their protein-heavy meal and starting to show signs of life. They all sat around the campfire Chloe had cooked on, making a circle around it while eating and chatting.

"I've tried everything to get the damn fish to bite." Nathaniel remarked. "I'm starting to think they just don't like this weather."

"Maybe not," Marc replied. "Maybe you need to move spots to somewhere upstream. There could be a lot of predators that eat fish here, or something."

"I might visit the bathhouse today, get real squeaky clean for the party tomorrow. Last time I did was about...three weeks ago?" Alya said, mouth open and chewing quickly.

"Slow down before you swallow your tongue!" Nino interrupted, his worried expression breaking into a smile. "That seems nice, dear. I'm sure you'll attract some attention that way. Maybe too much.” 

Alya made a face at that idea. "Don't go getting too jealous on me."

Rose and Juleka were already through eating, sitting in front of the vanity mirror in their tent. Rose applied makeup to her girlfriend, eager to help her get all dolled up for a day in town.

"You're so beautiful," Rose said with a sigh.

Juleka rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, love, we all know who the cute one is here." 

"Obviously it's me," Adrien said as he walked by them. The girls both called to him as he went, jeering him and laughing at his intrusion. He laughed, too, but his smile died as soon as he was far enough away. Adrien really hoped this soirée was going to be the one. Surely they could make their score here and be done with crime forever. God, he really hoped so. He didn't know how much more he could take of losing his friends.

"You about ready?" he asked Marinette as he came into their tent. 

"I reckon so," she answered as she pulled a stubborn boot on. She had chosen a Victorian style dress in a muted red, but gave it her own charm through some unique accessories. She had a very obvious holster belt that hung around her hip, displaying a colt .45 revolver. It also made the dress hug her midsection a little tighter, which she thought accented her figure. Though she always did her hair, she chose to wear a black hat most of the time. 

"Lookin' forward to seeing this place for myself, honestly. I can always tell when we just need to rob a town blind and get lost. Call it woman's intuition."

Adrien just nodded, unsure how much he trusted her intuition as of late.

The four members of the group going to town set themselves up on three horses, Marinette and Alya doubling up. Adrien packed his repeater into the holster on Lucky's thigh, hoping he would have no reason to pull it out.

The ride to town was slow and monotonous, the horses having to take many long, winding paths down the hill they had made camp on to get to the main road. Not much was said as the four of them tried not to feel sick in the twists and turns. Even so, the silence was killing Adrien.

"So Alya, what's your plan of attack here?" He looked to her on the back of Marinette's horse.

"Well, 'Nette has been telling me some about her schtick,” Alya said. “Since I've grown bored with the whole sugar daddy nonsense, I think I'll help her on that front.”

Adrien looked surprised, and maybe a little concerned. "Are you ready for that? I mean, I'm sure you can do it. It just gets to be a little…intense." 

Alya was giving him a pretty intense look in response."I definitely am. Me and Marinette are gonna kick butt as the baddest bitches ever to rob." 

Marinette smirked at that, but her face quickly turned more serious. A million possibilities roamed through her mind of how their adventures in this town would go. She had experienced the biggest scores, and the nearest brushes with death.

She always got this way for a while when they came to a new town. Marinette threw herself into her work, even if her work was holding people up. Adrien nodded, trying to smile at the notion of Alya and Marinette raising cane as a dynamic duo. In all honesty, it put a pit in his stomach to imagine either or _both_ of them getting hurt. 

"Alright. I'll be counting on you to look after her, then." 

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************

As Violet came into view, Adrien considered how vibrant the town was. It truly lived up to its name. Though small, seeming to only be made of a few dozen buildings, the main strip of road was positively fancy. Each business was colored a beautiful if dull purple, with signs reading names like ‘SALOON’ and ‘GENERAL STORE.’ 

“Y’all go on ahead to the bathhouse,” Adrien said to Marinette as they rode past the Sheriff’s Office. “Juleka and I are gonna go see what the watering hole is like.” Marinette nodded and Alya waved as their horse picked up a little speed and left the other two behind.

After hitching the horses, Adrien helped Juleka down and then led her into the local saloon with trepidation. His worst fears were realized when he saw two men sitting at the bar, purple bandanas hung down around their necks while they drank. The bar was rather large, with five tables scattered around that could sit four or five people each. Two of them were occupied only at this time of day, with the inhabitants only seeming to be users of the upstairs inn rooms. As Juleka and Adrien swung the doors open and took in the scene, one of the masked men set down his freshly emptied shot glass and spoke.

“Well, well, well,” he said, a smile over his face. “How nice of you both to waltz in and join us here. The boss has had us looking for you in every town within 50 miles.” Adrien kept a stoic look, but was already more aware of the gun on his hip than he was a moment ago.

“We’re not looking for any trouble,” said Adrien as he put out his arm in defense of Juleka. “We’re here to drink like anyone else.”

“The amount of trouble you’re about to get into is completely up to you,” the man said as he made an aggressive stand away from the bar. “I reckon you oughta come with us, if you want no trouble.”

“My dad doesn’t own me. He’s gonna have to get over that, and stop sending his thugs to force me back.” Adrien said in response, defiant. The bartender was looking concerned, and made movements to come out from behind the bar. The other masked man, the one who hadn’t spoken, flashed his pistol across the bar. 

“I reckon you better sit down as well, unless you want trouble, too,” he said, training the barrel at the bartender’s head. Unarmed, the bartender had little choice but to sit down behind the bar.

“I’ll give you to the count of three,” the other one said to Adrien. “One.”

Adrien looked around at his options. A few tables, and the posts standing next to the entrance. Not much cover, but it would have to do.

“Two.”

Adrien put his hand on his pistol. He prayed that if anyone was watching up there, that they watch over Marinette and the group.

“Three.”

Adrien cocked the hammer back on the gun, keeping his hand ready to draw it. The masked man who had been counting reached for his pistol and fired. Adrien shoved Juleka out of the way just before, knocking both of them to the floor. The bullet whizzed by between their two heads, causing Juleka to shriek. Adrien’s breath held for the second it took him to get up and slide behind a column of wood, afraid that she had been hit. He saw her scuttling under a table and felt his shoulders lock from the releasing tension. 

Another shot passed by as he stood up, and he smelled the burning gunpowder as it chipped wood off of the side of his new hiding spot. Adrien was pinned down, and he wouldn’t be able to get a shot off himself without getting hit. He took a deep breath. 

_Please don’t let this be it._

He rolled back out, standing there just past the door for a split second to line up his shot. He heard another shot, but neither of the thugs had fired. Juleka sat up on her knees, eyes just above the top of the table with a smoking derringer in her hand. The single shot gun had found its target, hitting Adrien’s target a few inches above his hip. Adrien took the opportunity to fire again, landing a double tap next to the masked man’s nose before his partner could turn around. The fatally wounded Gabriel gang member fell to the floor, a pool of blood slowly forming underneath him. 

“Hands up!” Adrien shouted, already prepared to put a bullet in the remaining man. Though armed, the living man would have been shot before he could aim at Adrien. He raised both of his hands in defeat, dropping his own gun at his feet. The patrons who had been dining and drinking fell over themselves getting up, running past Adrien and through the swinging doors of the saloon.

Juleka stood up fully now, brushing her dress off and strapping the spent palm pistol back to its place on a holster attached to her left garter. 

“Well, this was not exactly the introduction I was hoping for,” Adrien said to the bartender as he stood back up from the bar. “I guess Violet is in this with us now, Juleka.”


End file.
